Arnulfo and Berenice play the following game: One of the two starts by writing a number from $ 1$ to $30$, the other chooses a number from $ 1$ to $30$ and adds it to the initial number, the first player chooses a number from $ 1$ to $30$ and adds it to the previous result, they continue doing the same until someone manages to add $2018$. When Arnulfo was about to start, Berenice told him that it was unfair, because whoever started had a winning strategy, so the numbers had better change. So they asked the following question: Adding chosen numbers from $1 $ to $a$, until reaching the number $ b$, what conditions must meet $a$ and $ b$ so that the first player does not have a winning strategy? Indicate if Arnulfo and Berenice are right and answer the question asked by them.

On a board there are written the integers from $1$ to $119$. Two players, $A$ and $B$, make a move by turn. A $move$ consists in erasing $9$ numbers from the board. The player after whose move two numbers remain on the board wins and his score is equal with the positive difference of the two remaining numbers. The player $A$ makes the first move. Find the highest integer $k$, such that the player $A$ can be sure that his score is not smaller than $k$.

There is a row with $2024$ cells. Ana and Beto take turns playing, with Ana going first. On each turn, the player selects an empty cell and places a digit in that space. Once all $2024$ cells are filled, the number obtained from reading left to right is considered, ignoring any leading zeros. Beto wins if the resulting number is a multiple of $99$, otherwise Ana wins. Determine which of the two players has a winning strategy and describe it.

An integer is given $N> 1$. Arne and Britt play the following game: (1) Arne says a positive integer $A$. (2) Britt says an integer $B> 1$ that is either a divisor of $A$ or a multiple of $A$. ($A$ itself is a possibility.) (3) Arne says a new number $A$ that is either $B - 1, B$ or $B + 1$. The game continues by repeating steps 2 and 3. Britt wins if she is okay with being told the number $N$ before the $50$th has been said. Otherwise, Arne wins. a) Show that Arne has a winning strategy if $N = 10$. b) Show that Britt has a winning strategy if $N = 24$. c) For which $N$ does Britt have a winning strategy?

Two players take turns to write natural numbers on a board. The rules forbid writing numbers greater than $p$ and also divisors of previously written numbers. The player who has no move loses. Determine which player has a winning strategy for $p = 10$ and describe this strategy.

A box contains $100$ tickets. Each ticket has a real number written on it. There are no restrictions on the type of number except that they are all different (they can be integers, rational, positive, negative, irrational, large or small). Of course there is one ticket that has the highest number and that is the winner. The game consists of drawing a ticket at random, looking at it and deciding whether to keep it or not. If we choose to keep him, it is verified if he was the oldest, in which case we win a million pesos (if we don't win, the game is over). If we don't think it's the biggest, we can discard it and draw another one, repeating the process until we like one or we run out of tickets. Going back to choose a previously discarded ticket is prohibited. Find a game strategy that gives at least a $25\%$ chance of winning.

Let $S$ the set of natural numbers from $1$ up to $1001$ , $S=\{1,2,...,1001\}$. Lisandro thinks of a number $N$ of $S$ , and Carla has to find out that number with the following procedure. She gives Lisandro a list of subsets of $S$, Lisandro reads it and tells Carla how many subsets of her list contain $N$ . If Carla wishes, she can repeat the same thing with a second list, and then with a third, but no more than $3$ are allowed. What is the smallest total number of subsets that allow Carla to find $N$ for sure?

The number $1234567890$ is written on the blackboard. Two players $A$ and $B$ play the following game taking alternate moves. In one move, a player erases the number which is written on the blackboard, say, $m$, subtracts from $m$ any positive integer not exceeding the sum of the digits of $m$ and writes the obtained result instead of $m$. The first player who reduces the number written on the blackboard to $0$ wins. Determine which of the players has the winning strategy if the player $A$ makes the first move.

The archipelago Barrantes - $n$ is a group of islands connected by bridges as follows: there are a main island (Humberto), in the first step I place an island below Humberto and one above from Humberto and I connect these 2 islands to Humberto. I put $2$ islands to the left of these $2$ new islands and I connect them with a bridge to the island that they have on their right. In the second step I take the last $2$ islands and I apply the same process that I applied to Humberto. In the third step I apply the same process to the $4$ new islands. We repeat this step n times we reflect the archipelago that we have on a vertical line to the right of Humberto. We connect Humberto with his reflection and so we have the archipelago Barrantes -$n$. However, the archipelago Barrantes -$n$ exists on a small planet cylindrical, so that the islands to the left of the archipelago are in fact the islands that are connected to the islands on the right. The figure shows the Barrantes archipelago -$2$, The islands at the edges are still numbered to show how the archipelago connects around the cylindrical world, the island numbered $1$ on the left is the same as the island numbered $1$ on the right. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/e/c/803d95ce742c2739729fdb4d74af59d4d0652f.png[/img] One day two bands of pirates arrive at the archipelago Barrantes - $n$: The pirates Black Beard and the Straw Hat Pirates. Blackbeard proposes a game to Straw Hat: The first player conquers an island, the next player must conquer an island connected to the island that was conquered in the previous turn (clearly not conquered on a previous shift). The one who cannot conquer any island in his turn loses. Straw Hat decides to give the first turn to Blackbeard. Prove that Straw Hat has a winning strategy for every $n$.

Andrew and Barry play the following game: there are two heaps with $a$ and $b$ pebbles, respectively. In the first round Barry chooses a positive integer $k,$ and Andrew takes away $k$ pebbles from one of the two heaps (if $k$ is bigger than the number of pebbles in the heap, he takes away the complete heap). In the second round, the roles are reversed: Andrew chooses a positive integer and Barry takes away the pebbles from one of the two heaps. This goes on, in each round the two players are reversing the roles. The player that takes the last pebble loses the game. Which player has a winning strategy? [i]Submitted by András Imolay, Budapest[/i]

Ward and Gabrielle are playing a game on a large sheet of paper. At the start of the game, there are $999$ ones on the sheet of paper. Ward and Gabrielle each take turns alternatingly, and Ward has the first turn. During their turn, a player must pick two numbers a and b on the sheet such that $gcd(a, b) = 1$, erase these numbers from the sheet, and write the number $a + b$ on the sheet. The first player who is not able to do so, loses. Determine which player can always win this game.

Arthur and Renate play a game on a $7 \times 7$ board. Arthur has two red tiles, initially placed on the cells in the bottom left and the upper right corner. Renate has two black tiles, initially placed on the cells in the bottom right and the upper left corner. In a move, a player can choose one of his two tiles and move them to a horizontally or vertically adjacent cell. The players alternate, with Arthur beginning. Arthur wins when both of his tiles are in horizontally or vertically adjacent cells after some number of moves. Can Renate prevent him from winning?

A game is played with two heaps of $p$ and $q$ stones. Two players alternate playing, with $A$ starting. A player in turn takes away one heap and divides the other heap into two smaller ones. A player who cannot perform a legal move loses the game. For which values of $p$ and $q$ can $A$ force a victory?

We have a square of side $1$ and a number $\ell$ such that $0 <\ell <\sqrt2$. Two players $A$ and $B$, in turn, draw in the square an open segment (without its two ends) of length $\ell $, starts A. Each segment after the first cannot have points in common with the previously drawn segments. He loses the player who cannot make his play. Determine if either player has a winning strategy.

Alicia and Bob take turns writing words on a blackboard. The rules are as follows: a) Any word that has been written cannot be rewritten. b) A player can only write a permutation of the previous word, or can simply simply remove one letter (whatever you want) from the previous word. c) The first person who cannot write another word loses. If Alice starts by typing the word ''Olympics" and Bob's next turn, who, do you think, has a winning strategy and what is it?

There are seven piles with $2014$ pebbles each and a pile with $2008$ pebbles. Ana and Beto play in turns and Ana always plays first. One move consists of removing pebbles from all the piles. From each pile is removed a different amount of pebbles, between $1$ and $8$ pebbles. The first player who cannot make a move loses. a) Who has a winning strategy? b) If there were seven piles with $2015$ pebbles each and a pile with $2008$ pebbles, who has a winning strategy?

There is a $2021 \times 2023$ board that has a white piece in the central square, on which Mich and Moka are going to play in turns. First Mich places a green token on any free space so that it is not in the same row or column as the white token, then Moka places a red token on any free space so that it is not in the same row or column as the white token. white or green. From now on, Mich will place green tokens and Moka will place red tokens alternately according to the following rules: $\bullet$ For the placed piece there must be another piece of the same color in its row or column, such that there is no other piece between both pieces. $\bullet$ If there is at least one box that meets the previous rule, then it is mandatory to place a token. When a token is placed, it changes all the tokens that are on squares adjacent to it to the same color. The game ends when one of the players can no longer place tiles. If when the game ends the board has more green tiles then Mich wins, and if it has more red tiles then Moka wins. Determine if either player has a winning strategy.